Kazakhstan power past determined Thailand in thrilling four-setter

Kazakhstan, fresh from beating Chinese Taipei in tie-breaker the previous day, fielded a formidable line-up with Maxim Michshenko, Vitaliy Vorivodin and Dmitry Vovnenko, the tournament’s tallest player with the height of 212cm, at the helm.

Thailand also sent in a tall line-up which included young Kantapat Koonme, who stands 204cm tall, Kissada Nilsawai, Kitipong Suksala, with ace spiker Jirayu Raksakaew and Kittikun Sri-utthawong being the team’s mainstays.

Kazakhstan got off to a flying start to lead initially 15-13, thanks to sharp attacks from Michshenko and Vorivodin. The host side fought back gallantly, with Jirayu overpowering the much taller rivals with his exceptional spikes and Kissada’s lightning-fast attacks to help Thailand reduce the gap 20-23. Kantapat scored crucial points through his cross-court spikes to make Thailand hot on the rivals’ heels 21-23 and again 22-24 before an effective fast attack from Nodirkhan Kadirkhanov ended the Thai challenge. Kazakhstan won the close set 25-22.

The second set was almost the similar script when Kazakhstan performed superbly to race to a 11-6 lead. Cheered on noisily by drum-beating Thai fans at the venue, Thailand started to produce the goods as they counter-attacked well to reduce the margin 20-24. However, Thailand’s fine form came too late as the well-established visitors allowed them only one more point before Kazakhstan took the set 25-21, courtesy of an aggressive attack from Vassiliy Donets.

The battle was still hotly-contested in the third set. Thai fans came to life with the drumbeat being heard loudest ever when the Thai team mounted a strong challenge against the giants Kazakhs which saw leads change hands for several times. Terrific jump serves by Jirayu put Thailand ahead 17-15 and Kazakhstan’s head coach Igor Nikolchenko called a timeout to improve their game. His intention paid off impressively when Kazakhstan caught Thailand at 17-17.  Nonetheless, shortly after that, the host team, supported by boisterous fans, roared back with combination attacks to claim the set 25-20.

In the fourth set, Kazakhstan took an early 12-7 lead, but Thailand bounced back heavily to come close 10-14, much to the Thai fans’ delight. Kazakhstan shone through their superb skill with excellent combinations and attacks to eventually capture the set 25-18 and match.

Vitaliy Vorivodin emerged as the top scorer for Kazakhstan with 17 points including 14 kills from 18 attempts. Maxim Michshenko added with 13 kills and Vassiliy Donets with 12. Dmitry Vovnenko contributed with 5 kill blocks. Jirayu Raksakaew scored a team-high 20 points for Thailand including 17 kills from 28 attempts. Kissada Nilsawai added with 3 stuff blocks.

“A lot of volleyball fans came here to enjoy our match and I think it shows good atmosphere of a volleyball competition. Since there were many Thai crowds here at the competition venue, it seemed that they put a little pressure on my team, but as I said before, the preliminaries serve us like warm-up. We then made a little change in the team position. The setter was at his best, while the others served well. From Monday onwards, it will be more important for every team. We will try to do our best in that round,” Kazakhstan’s head coach Igor Nikolchenko commented after the match.